Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 3¾ mins.
Ophelia Rag celebrates a certain Ophelia Bumps, the heroine of a same named comic strip popular in the early 1900s. The cover of the original sheet music shows this charming cross-eyed little girl holding a slate displaying the excellent advice of "Don't Chuw [sic] The Rag, Sing It!". The cover's illustrator Clare Victor Dwiggins also illustrated Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and Nipper. The rag itself is of AABBCCB form the strains being "folksy" with cakewalk elements. This is a light-hearted fun piece whereby the treble player will particularly enjoy having the limelight by playing the melody almost throughout. Both the tenor and bass have plenty to do however with their own moments of glory.
Ophelia Rag was published by
Stark Music Co, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
A tempo of 76 crotchets/min. is suggested.
There are also
treble solo and
sextet versions of this item.